LEBANON: TENOR LUCIANO PAVAROTTI HOLDS MIDDLE EAST DEBUT CONCERT TO HELP REVIVE BEIRUT AS CENTRE OF CULTURE IN ARAB WORLD

Record ID: 705127

  • Title: LEBANON: TENOR LUCIANO PAVAROTTI HOLDS MIDDLE EAST DEBUT CONCERT TO HELP REVIVE BEIRUT AS CENTRE OF CULTURE IN ARAB WORLD
  • Date: 19th June 1999
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (JUNE 12, 1999) (REUTERS) (VOXPOP) (English) FAN SAYING: "All the people who made this event happen in Lebanon and I hope it will happen in other Arabic countries, other than Lebanon and I would go if it happens in Jordan or anywhere else in the Arab world I would go and watch the event again." (VOXPOP) (English) FAN SAYING: "Well it is the first time to
  • Embargoed: 4th July 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVAGCDG3KFI36SALV95GRQNXI9I
  • Story Text: Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti made his Arab world debut on Saturday (June 12), before a packed sports stadium in Beirut, a city struggling to regain its position as the cultural capital of the Middle East.
    The audience of 18,000 hummed to opera performances dominated by Puccini as Pavarotti alternated with soprano Camella Remigi for two hours in the first concert to be held at Cite Sportif, the $110 million stadium built in 1997.
    Critics at the weekend played down any lasting influence Pavarotti would have on Beirut, chosen as the 1999 Arab Culture Capital and instead chose to criticise the government for failing to adequately promote Lebanese talent.
    "Pavarotti helps establish Lebanon as an important place for artists to come but the Lebanese must also recognise their own musicians, such as (organist) Najih Hakim and (flutist) Wissam Bustani," said Gareth Smyth, a music writer based in Beirut.
    In the past few years leading Arab thinkers and musicians have made a point of visiting Beirut.Edward Said and Walid al-Khalidi, two Palestinian national figures identified with the "men of the age" in modern Arab culture, received a heroes welcome when they lectured in Beirut in 1997.
    A number of respected jazz musicians who left Lebanon during the 1975-1990 war also have been returning.
    Oud player and composer Rabih Abu Khalil, the best-selling artist on the Enja jazz label, will perform in Lebanon for the first time ever this August at the Baalbek Festival, which resumed in 1997.
    "Rabih played 'world music' long before the term was invented, combining Arabic jazz and classical forms in a style very much his own," said Smyth."(International) music comes very naturally to such Lebanese artists.They cross borders very effortlessly."
    Rabih, who left Lebanon at the age of 17 in 1977, was trained as a classical musician in Germany, unlike Marwan Abado, another composer from Palestine who grew up in a refugee camp north of Beirut before leaving to learn oud at the hands of Iraqi maestro Asim Chalabi in Vienna.
    A free performance Abado gave in an old Beirut house last month, in which he celebrated Palestinian folk culture, contrasted markedly with the atmosphere of affluence that characterised Pavarotti's concert in Beirut.
    Tickets Saturday ranged from $33 to $298.Pavarotti received an estimated $1 million for his appearance, arranged by the wife of Rafik al-Hariri, a billionaire former prime minister, with any remaining proceeds going to charity.
    "Pavarotti was a Beirut phenomena who had huge backing, but we should not rely on phenomena only and neglect Lebanese talent," said George Zoghbi, a leading Beirut promoter.
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